Overcoming procrastination is huge problem for an adult with ADHD. Adults with ADHD tend to put off everything from paying bills to doing housework. Breaking the cycle of procrastination does not happen overnight, if you have some other reasons why you procrastinate it may take you a little longer. If procrastination is holding you back in life, it is better to try to tackle it now than deal with the consequences later on. Whatever the reason, the following steps can help you overcome your procrastination & accomplish what you need to do today instead of putting it off for another day.
Plan – Thinking alone will not help; you need to plan out your actions. I try to plan out my deadlines in my calendar in advance because you know Murphy’s Law. Think about everything that you need to do, and how it will take you, what you need to get done, and then plan out the individual steps.
Resistance –Just because you planned out the steps, it doesn’t mean that this is going to be different. You may feel the resistance so this may be accepted. The key is to indentify out why you are procrastinating, so when you feel this resistance, try to indentify it right away. What is causing you to hesitate in this moment? What are you feeling? You can write them down if it helps.
Confront The Feelings – Once you have figured out what could be holding you back, for instance, fear of failure, lack of motivation ect. You should learn strategies on lessening the resistance. You can ask yourself “What do I need to do to move forward? What can I do to make it easier?” If you find that you are in fear of something, overcoming that fear is something that doesn’t happen overnight, it does take some time.
Put Results Before Comfort – At this point, you should keep moving forward and put results before comfort. Try to take action only if it is for 10 minutes. The key is to break the cycle and not to reinforce it. You have more control than you think.
Repeat– Repeat steps 3-5 until you accomplish what you set out to do.